Residents May Pay Most Cleanup Bills

September 4, 1989|By ROBERT McCLURE, Staff Writer

The millions of people who populate South Florida`s cities and suburbs are footing most of the multimillion-dollar bill for pumping farmers` pollution into the Everglades, while farmers pay only a fraction of the cost, records show.

And if things go the way they historically have gone, city people will pay most of the $100 million-plus bill to clean up the pollution.

Making urban people pay farming corporations` cleanup costs does not sit well with at least one member of the South Florida Water Management District`s governing board, which is responsible for solving the pollution problem.

``I believe that the people who are causing the pollution should be the ones who pay to clean it up,`` Chairman James Garner of Fort Myers said recently.

It is the lucrative sugar industry that dominates the Everglades Agricultural Area, the source of most of the pollution that scientists say is killing the Everglades.

Taxpayers across the United States help guarantee the earnings of sugar farming corporations through price supports and import restrictions. State law also grants them and other farmers big property tax breaks.

The water delivery system that moves their polluted water into the Everglades was paid for by the federal government during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, as the farming area was drained.

Today, agriculture pays very little of the costs of operating that system, district records show.

More than $5.5 million a year of the water district`s annual spending can be attributed to the Everglades Agricultural Area, a district study says. More than $2 million goes for operating huge water pumps.

But the farming region contributes no more than $500,000 a year to the water district in property taxes, according to district records and interviews. That is not even enough to run the district`s public information office.

``So if I`m a homeowner in Coral Gables or Palm Beach County, or if I own a business in one of those places, my tax bill is subsidizing the agricultural economy of the EAA,`` said Charles Lee of the Audubon Society.

Sugar industry officials do not see it quite that way.

``There`s been a determination made in most government entities that they want to maintain and protect agriculture,`` said Andy Rackley, vice president and general manager of the Florida Sugar Cane League. ``That policy is a philosophical one. That (tax break) is what you do if you want to make sure the land stays in agriculture.``

A study showed that the water district spent about $5.5 million in operation costs in the farming area in the year ending in September 1987.

There are other costs, as well. Overhauling water pumps and other special projects in the farming area added extra costs totaling $2.7 million in the same fiscal year, the district`s study showed.

No estimate was available for the total tax take this year for the agricultural area.

But western Palm Beach County makes up about about four-fifths of the agricultural area. And the district`s study of the year ending September 1987 showed the Palm Beach County portion of the area contributed just $289,105 of the district`s $78 million property tax income that year, district figures show.

Today, the farming area contributes no more than $500,000 a year in property taxes, district officials confirmed.

``Those big pumps that keep their socks dry are paid for by you. The whole system is being operated for their advantage, paid for by others,`` Jim Webb of The Wilderness Society said. ``I just think we ought to be damned resistant to giving another subsidy.``

A cleanup program being shaped by the water district will cost $100 million or more, sugar growers estimate. This month, the water district will begin discussing how to finance the cleanup.

The water management district`s cleanup plan proposes to request that sugar and vegetable growers unite and figure out a way to eliminate about one-sixth of the pollution flowing into the Everglades by 1993. The district would handle another one-sixth by pumping it into an overdrained tract of Everglades bordered by farmland and known as the Holey Land.

How will the rest of the cleanup be done, and who will pay? That question has not been answered yet.

``The sugar cane industry would seem to be untouchable people,`` Fredi Fisikelli of the Everglades Coordinating Council told the water district`s governing board. ``Your words are that you`re going to request them to do this. You`re not even going to tell them to do it.``

John Wodraska, executive director of the water management district, said he wanted to encourage the farming corporations to find their own pollution control methods.

``There`s an incentive for them to work to reduce (pollution),`` Wodraska said. ``The cleaner water they deliver, the less the size of the management area (to cleanse water) we`re going to need.``

Wodraska said criticism of his agency`s current taxing policies favoring the big farming corporations is unfair.